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A live image during tumor irradiation

Ionoacoustics enables a precise real-time imaging of the position in tissue (pink) where the irradiation releases its biggest effect (displayed in purple). (Picture: Stephan Kellnberger)

In future, the irradiation of tumors with protons could become more precise. Medical physicists from the Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU Munich), together with physicists from the Technical University, the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Universität der Bundeswehr München have combined conventional ultrasound technology with proton irradiation of a tumor. Using ionoacoustic technology they developed, they are able to observe the action of proton beams in real time via ultrasound. (Scientific Reports 2016)